"A certain man of Zorah, named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, had a wife who was sterile and remained childless."(Judges 13:2)

Manoah was of the tribe of Dan, and lived in the city of Zorah. He and his wife were childless, but an angel of the Lord appeared to Manoah's wife and told her that she would give birth to a son. The child was to be dedicated from the womb as a Nazirite, which entailed restrictions on his diet, which the angel spelled out in detail. The "woman" (for her name was omitted) told her husband “A man of God came to me”, whose countenance was like the angel of God. Manoah prayed again and the angel returned to instruct the both of them. After the angel left, Manoah tells his wife,"We shall surely die, because we have seen God." (Judges 13:22)

Together with his wife he subsequently tried to dissuade Samson from marrying a Philistine woman, but travelled with him to Timnah for the wedding ceremony when they were unable to do so.

In
Arabic
Samson's
name is
Shamshoum
(شمشون) or
Abu-El
Eizam
(The
father
of
power).

The roots of the Manoach family are scattered all over the Balkan area. From Rumania at the Western-North to Georgia, Azerbaijan and Albania at the East, through Macedonia, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey and Northern Iraq (Kurdistan). Basically All that area was occupying by the Ottoman Empire back from the 14th century till 1923. (See Map)